Felicity Jones in The Men at the Pru

Felicity's next job is in The Men at the Pru...

British actress Felicity Jones has signed to play the female lead in Ricky Gervais' 1970s insurance-world dramedy "The Men at the Pru."

Jones will play Julie, who is led to believe by the men around her that a woman should focus on raising a family but who wants to break out and pursue a career in photography.

The picture, from the Sony International Motion Picture Production Group, which is designed to cultivate local production, is set to shoot in the summer in the U.K. It revolves around three men in their 20s who work at an insurance company (Pru is short for Prudential). Gervais is writing, directing and producing with "Extras" collaborator Stephen Merchant.

Jones has had roles in a number of high-profile British pics, starring last year in Julius Jarrold's "Brideshead Revisited" for Miramax, in the specialty division's upcoming Stephen Frears' period romance "Cheri," and Julie Taymor's femme-centric retelling of "The Tempest."

Jones has also just signed with CAA in the U.S. She continues to be repped by Independent Talent Group in the U.K.

Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

Christina Cole in Emma and Maggie Hill

Thanks to friend Anna for letting me know that Christina Cole is playing Mrs Elton in the new BBC version of Jane Austen's Emma. This will be a return to the world of Jane Austen for Christina as she played Caroline Bingley in last year's Lost in Austen.



Christina is also apparently playing the lead role in a US pilot called Maggie Hill. I read that it's about a surgeon with schizophrenia.

Sounds like a barrel of laughs.

Lucy Liemann in Reggie Perrin

I've just seen a trailer for a remake of Reggie Perrin on the BBC. First minus point against it is that it's a remake of a Leonard Rossiter comedy, so how can it compare. Second minus point against it is that it stars Martin Clunes and he always plays the same character, i.e. Martin Clunes.

However it gets at least five plus points for casting Lucy Liemann in it.



Lucy played script editor Sam in the really very good Moving Wallpaper, the second series of which has just been shown on ITV. She usually ended up playing the comic foil to the endearingly vain and inept producer Jonathan Pope played by Ben Miller.

So I will make the effort to watch this new thing for Lucy. I will be very surprised it it even raises a smile, but Lucy's presence will make watching it worthwhile.

Terminator: TSCC Episode 2.19

This episode continues the "Captain Queeg" storyline from last week. It turns out to be quite a talky episode, but in a good way.

In the present John asks Derek how long he would last in a fight against Cameron without weapons. Derek agrees that if Cameron wants someone dead then they are dead.

John goes to "Kendra's", sorry Jessie's, hotel room and draws a gun on her. He tells her not to pretend that she doesn't know him. He gets her to admit she killed Riley and then decides to let her go. She asks if he would have deactivated Cameron if he believed she killed Riley. He says no. "Then it's a damn shame," says Jessie.

Derek is waiting for Jessie downstairs. He explains how he killed Andy Good in the present even though they were like brothers in the future. He says he doesn't think that this Jessie is "his" Jessie. She runs. He raises his gun and appears to pull the trigger.

There's just a little bit of Cromartie in this one. He is painting model figurines. Later he reveals to Weaver that he knows about former employees who have "resigned" but have not appeared since. He says he found a "resignation letter" for Ellison in Weaver's computer system.

In the flashbacks to 2027 we see the repercussions of the mysterious box being taken onto the submarine. Queeg won't reveal what is in the box. One of the sailors is disgusted that the metal have made their way into every aspect of the resistance. He wonder's who is running the war.

Later some of the crew break into the box. A T-100 kills one and takes their form before vanishing into the sub. Jessie wants to search but Queeg overrules her. Tensions run high and members of the crew accuse Jessie of being metal.

Queeg kills a dissenter and Jessie resolves to take over the ship. She shoots queeg in the head and abandons the sub. Just before boarding the escape pod the T-1000 appears to Jessie and passes on a message for John Connor. The answer is 'no'. Jessie and the crew escape and we also see the liquid metal machine escape.

Back at base Jessie is being debriefed by Cameron. Jessie wants to give the message to John in person but Cameron insists that telling her is the same thing. Jessie realises that the sailor was maybe right about the metal running the show. She tells Cameron the answer was no. Cameron tells her that the question was "Will you join us?" Does this imply that there is a rogue grouping of machines out of Skynet control. Was the T-1000 the one that would become Weaver?

Cameron also reveals that Jesse has lost the baby she was carrying during the mission on the sub. So all in all this episode does go some way to explaining why Jessie was so focused on getting Cameron away from John Connor. She believes that she is the only one who can see what a danger Cameron and the metal have become.

Laura Vandervoort in Riverworld

After working on the remake of "V" Laura Vandervoort, my favourite Supergirl, will be appearing in another SF remake.

Sci Fi has found lead actors for "Riverworld" and "The Phantom," its upcoming movie events that will serve as trials for possible new series.

"Battlestar Galactica" veteran Tahmoh Penikett and "Smallville" supergirl Laura Vandervoort will star in "Riverworld," and Ryan Carnes ("Desperate Housewives") has been cast as the Phantom.

Penikett is best known for playing Helo on "Battlestar." In "Riverworld," he will play war correspondent Matt Ellman, who is killed along with his fiancee (Vandervoort) but awakens in a mysterious world populated by everyone who has lived on Earth.

Source:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i701e5f503331aba04a5ed840f1b14291


I assume that the new Riverworld will be based on the series of novels by Philip Jose Farmer which have the same plot.

I believe there was another Riverworld pilot made a few years ago but it never followed up by a series.

Emma, Persuasion and Our Mutual Friend Penguin TV Tie-ins

I made a few nice finds in a second hand bookshop today. Over the last couple of year's I've been catching up on all the period drama's that I didn't watch when they came out in the 1990s. Usually Penguin books put out a TV tie-in edition and today I found three more for my collection.

First of all here's the 1996 edition of Jane Austen's Emma to tie-in with the version made by ITV. Kate Beckinsale and Mark Strong are shown prominently on the cover. The cover also mentions a "making of" book is available. What is nice about this edition is that it contains eight pages of colour cast photos in the middle. No, I'm not scanning them as I don't want to ruin the spine. The cover price was £3.99.



Not far away from that book I spotted a copy of Jane Austen's Persuasion featuring photos of Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds from the 1995 BBC adaptation on the cover. I was prompted to get this version of Persuasion on DVD in 2007 after seeing the excellent Sally Hawkins version. This book does not have photos of the cast inside but was originally on sale for the amazing price of £1.99!

Finally here is the 1998 tie-in edition of Charles Dickens' Our Mutual Friend. This book has photos of Anna Friel and Keeley Hawes on the cover. This one also has eight pages of cast photos inside and was on sale for £3.99. Not bad value for 900 pages. I've not seen this adaptation yet but I will be hunting it out on DVD. Unfortunately the spine of this book appears a little sun-faded.

I don't know if anyone else is interested in these sort of books but I thought I'd stick the photos up here for other like-minded people!

Terminator: TSSC Episode 2.18

In this week's episode the death of Riley has repercussions and we see the return of Cromartie, Ellison and Weaver.

"Kendra" is visibly injured after her fight with Riley so she goes to a bar and picks a fight to explain her wounds.

Sarah is packing her stuff for a move while chatting to a neighbour. The neighbour just happens to mention that her boyfriend the cop had to deal with a murder and goes on to describe Riley's distinguishing marks just so Sarah can find out Riley was killed.

Sarah goes to tell John. Finding John with Cameron Sarah tells the machine to leave the room. Cameron steps outside and sees a bid fly away. Summer Glau then gets the funniest line of the episode: "Goodbye bird. There was a 51% chance I wouldn't have killed you."

Sara believes that Cameron killed Riley. John wants to believe she didn't. When Derek gets the news he tells "Kendra". She replies that maybe some "good" can come of it and John will destroy Cameron. Derek is not impressed with her attitude, but he probably agrees.

Sarah discovers Cameron's stash of spare parts and burns them.

Later John goes to look at Riley's body. He sees her wounds and appears to work out that Cameron could not be responsible.

Elsewhere Weaver's little girl wants to play hide-and-seek. Cromartie lures her to his basement room and offers to play. She goes missing. Later Ellison and Weaver have to play a guessing game to find her. Weaver is impressed with what "John Henry" is learning. Ellison is not. After they find the girl in a helicopter on the roof he gives Cromartie a good talking to about placing the girl in danger.

A series of "flashbacks" to 2027 show a mission on the submarine that "Kendra" once mentioned. The "metal" captain uses unorthodox methods to escape attack from a Skynet machine called a Kraken. "Kendra" then realises that they are 300 miles off course.

The captain (called Queeg after the captain in The Caine Mutiny) says he is on a secret mission for John Connor. They are to pick up a package. Eventually they get the package from some other terminators. It is a mysterious metal box. What can be in it?

The episode ends with a "to be continued", but in the "next time" preview we can see a liquid metal T-1000 come out of the mysterious box and attack the crew of the sub. So was it a secret mission for John Connor, or was it a trick by the terminators?

Another good episode, although this one does feel like build-up.